West Hollywood preparing for a day full of weddings

Kevin Lee Light, known as "West Hollywood Jesus," holds a sign celebrating the U.S. Supreme Court's Proposition 8 ruling during a community rally last week in West Hollywood.

Kevin Lee Light, known as "West Hollywood Jesus," holds a sign celebrating the U.S. Supreme Court's Proposition 8 ruling during a community rally last week in West Hollywood. (Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images)

Hailey Branson-Potts

It's wedding day in West Hollywood, and the city is prepping for a party.

A large party-equipment truck filled the entrance to the West Hollywood City Council chambers, where council members will be deputized Monday afternoon to perform weddings.

City staffers spent the morning setting up awnings and testing wedding music over the loudspeakers.

After a five-year ban on same-sex weddings in California, the city will provide free wedding ceremonies Monday in its council chambers during a six-hour stretch Monday.

Couples with a marriage license from the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk will be eligible to get married without a fee from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday in council chambers at the West Hollywood Library.

Pat Joyce and Anne Morrison, of Northridge, came to the West Hollywood City Council chambers early to see when the ceremonies would start. Morrison clutched the yellow folder containing their wedding license, which they had just gotten from the registrar-recorder branch in Beverly Hills.

The couple have been together for 26 years. They met at a paddle tennis tournament; Morrison was playing and Joyce was in the audience.

"It was a long engagement," said Morrison, 61, a retired teacher.

"We talked about marriage many times," said Joyce, 60, who works on the support staff at UCLA.

They began planning to wed in 2008 but were unable to have a ceremony before Proposition 8. They became domestic partners after the same-sex marriage ban passed.

"We thought we had time," Joyce said. "We were too late."

Today, they said, is just about taking care of the legal aspect of the wedding. They will have a ceremony later with family and friends.

They arrived at the Beverly Hills recorder's office by 8:45 a.m. because they "just didn't want to take any chances" since they missed their window to get married in 2008, Joyce said.

The crowd of several dozen people applauded for every couple who came out with a marriage license, they said. The court bailiffs shushed the crowd since court was in session, but they did so with smiles and let the cheering proceed, Morrison said.

Two brothers from Reseda sat in red lawn chairs by the entrance to the West Hollywood City Council chambers, having arrived at 7 a.m. The free ceremonies will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis, and the brothers, Tyler Mead, 21, and Austin Mead, 18, wanted their aunts to have the first wedding of the day.

Their aunts, Helen Andersen and Pam Holt, planned to get married later Monday. But Holt has stage 4 colon cancer, they said, and she can't be on her feet long. They said they were saving her spot at the front of the line so she wouldn't have to worry about not feeling well.

"They've been waiting 18 years for this," Tyler Mead said.

Holt is the partner of the brothers' mom's sister, Helen Andersen.

"We volunteered to wait because we knew the circumstances," Tyler Mead said. "I'd wait days in this line for them."

City staff members tested wedding songs over the loudspeakers. When "Canon in D" started playing, Austin Mead's face lit up. Tyler Mead started laughing with joy.